"9,00,000 Illegal Migrants": What Makes LA Hotbed For Immigrant Protests

Why has Los Angeles, home to some of America's wealthiest and most powerful people, become the hotbed for US President Donald Trump's strictest immigration crackdown over the weekend? The answer lies in the city's ethnic, racial and demographic makeup.

Los Angeles County, which spreads over 4,000 square miles of Southern California, includes the city of Los Angeles, along with posh Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Long Beach, Malibu, Pasadena, Santa Monica, among several other communities. It is home to nearly 10 million people-- a whopping 27 per cent of California's population-- a third of which are foreign-born individuals, according to the US Census.

The heart of LA country, the city of Los Angleses, which is at the centre of volatile anti-immigration protests, is home to nearly 3.9 million people, over 35 per cent of whom were born outside the United States, the census data shows. It has nearly 9,00,000 undocumented immigrants, many of whom have lived in the United States for over a decade, according to a 2020 study by the University of Southern California Dornsife. Nearly one in five people in LA live in mixed-status households, where at least one family member is undocumented.

According to a USA Today report, more than half of LA's foreign-born residents are naturalised citizens. Over 1.8 million of Los Angeles residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, nearly half a million are Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. Over 1.15 million people say they are "some other race," and more than half a million of them identify with two or more races. More than 56 per cent of people in the city speak a language other than English at home-- predominantly Spanish.

This diversity makes Los Angeles uniquely vulnerable to Trump's immigration enforcement policies, which are being felt directly and deeply.

How The LA Protests Started?

The protests began on Friday after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers carried out raids in areas of the city with prominent Latino populations. These raids resulted in dozens of arrests of what authorities say are illegal migrants and gang members.

City residents responded to arrests with chants and egg-throwing, prompting law enforcement to disperse the crowd using pepper spray and nonlethal ammunition. Protests have been going on for five days, spreading downtown and to the heavily Latino suburb of Paramount. 

The Trump administration has deployed nearly 700 Marines and over 4,000 National Guard troops in the Los Angeles area, stirring more street protests and raising alarm among Democratic leaders who warn of authoritarianism. 

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people who are in the country illegally and to lock down the US-Mexico border, setting a goal of at least 3,000 daily arrests.